Talk Story With Cats

Talking story is part of how people in Hawaiʻi share experience, build relationships, and understand one another. A conversation can carry things that a report or research paper cannot: lived experience, memory, values, uncertainty, disagreement, humor, and the knowledge that comes from doing the work together.

At Kahu Pōpoki, Talk Story With Cats is where learning becomes kamaʻilio—conversation. We bring research and lived reality into the same space, listen to people who know an issue from different perspectives, and explore what the information means for cats, communities, wildlife, and Hawaiʻi.

Good conversation begins with hoʻolohe—listening. It does not require everyone to begin from the same position or reach the same conclusion. It does require curiosity, respect, and a willingness to look carefully at what others bring to the table. Sometimes that is scientific research. Sometimes it is professional expertise. Sometimes it is ʻike gained through years of caring for animals, working in a community, or knowing a particular place.

Through conversations, interviews, video, community voices, and public-policy discussions, we hope to create a place where people can learn something, share what they know, ask better questions, and continue the conversation together.

Teach & Talk Story

Learn something first. Then explore what it means together.

Our Teach & Talk Story format begins with a short exploration of an issue or piece of research and then opens the conversation.

Guests may bring professional expertise, community experience, cultural knowledge, or simply a different way of seeing the issue. The goal is not a debate with winners and losers, but thoughtful kūkākūkā—discussion that can deepen understanding.

[Explore Teach & Talk Story]

Community Voices

ʻIke comes from many places.

People caring for cats, working in neighborhoods, practicing veterinary medicine, protecting wildlife, volunteering in clinics, studying conservation, and serving their communities all see different parts of the same picture.

Here we share their experiences and moʻolelo—stories and histories that help place today's questions in a larger human and community context.

[Hear Community Voices]

Policy & Legislative Talk Story

Bringing lived reality and evidence into public decision-making.

Laws, ordinances, agency rules, and public policy can have lasting effects on animals, communities, wildlife, and the people asked to carry those policies out.

Here we follow important proposals, explain what they would do, explore the evidence behind them, share testimony and community perspectives, and help people understand how they can participate.

Public policy is also a form of kūkākūkā. It works best when decision-makers can hear from the people living with the consequences of those decisions.

[Explore Policy & Legislative Talk Story]

Videos & Conversations

Watch. Listen. Spend some time with us.

Some conversations are best experienced rather than summarized.

Here you can find Kahu Pōpoki videos, interviews, explainers, Nā Leo programs, community conversations, and other media that bring cats, people, research, and Hawaiʻi together.

Some will teach. Some will challenge assumptions. Some will simply give us time to sit together and talk story.

[Watch Videos & Conversations]